Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies

Posted By
Savita

Are you Peanut Butter and Jelly fan?! Me too! Seriously, addicted to it!

So today I baked a batch of buttery Shortbread Peanut Butter Thumbprint cookies topped with berry jam to help my PB&J cravings! Sounds even more delicious and quite a mouthful!! Isn't it? Exactly like a Peanut-Butter-and-jelly-fan munching 2-3 of thumbprint cookies all at once! lol!

Oh, and these cookies are also eggless and need just 5 simple pantry ingredients! Okay... six, if you consider pinch of salt as well! :) Really, just flour, butter, sugar, hint of salt, jam and your favorite creamy Peanut Butter will turn into these jelly topped peanut butter jewels in just 30 minutes of baking!

When Peanut Butter and Co sent me their delicious collection of Peanut Butters... The first thing I wanted to bake was some peanut butter and jelly goodies! I do have some more delicious plans to use their other Peanut Butter products.... but PB&J cookies are like my good-luck charm. My Mantra?

If you have Peanut Butter in house, PB&J are in your near future, for sure!

You know, we are on egg-less diet these days.. so I decided to bake eggless cookies.

Friends, don't these look gorgeous?

I had full plans of using only strawberry jam for filling. At last moment, I decided to fill half of the cookies with blueberry jam. No specific reason, just loved the color contrast and we both happen to like different jams! So I tried to take care of everyone's liking here. Even though, for the record, Vishal will eat a big stack of peanut butter cookies (my mouthful munch-y mentioned above).... no matter which kind of jam or jelly filling!!

Also, to satisfy my savory cravings I added a hint of salt. It is totally optional though I highly recommend it.

I really loved the consistency of Peanut Butter & Co's Smooth Operator peanut butter. Easy to spread on bread and mixes perfectly well in cookie dough, has no granny texture and yet buttery peanut flavor. This jar of peanut was almost gone in just first week of opening! Somebody likes Peanut Butter on spoons too.

Bake Topped with Jam or add Jam After Baking?

Well, good question! I'm not sure about experts but I have tried both methods. In my books, if you looking for longer shelf-life (1-2 day more than these ones), consider baking cookies topped with jelly. Side effect? A few kind of jelly/jams become gummy by the time cookies finish baking.

Topping jelly after baking has that fresh berry jam bite which compliments the buttery rich peanut shortbread cookies perfectly! Plus these look SO beautiful and vibrant! Kinda like enjoying colors of spring in fall-winter season!! Isn't it? Side Effect? These cookies are best consumed within a day or two of baking!!

I hope you enjoyed my take on everyone's favorite PB&J! Don't forget to buy some Smooth Operator peanut butter and bake a batch for these easy cookies for your family!

4.
Add in salt. Whisk in flour in 2-3 batches until just combined. Don't over-mix. Dough will look like big chunks of granula. Using hand bring the dough together.

5.
Divide the dough into 24 equal size small balls.

6.
Press in center of each cookie with back of a 1/4 tsp spoon. Or use thumb to make little impressions.

7.
Bake in preheated oven for 25-20 minutes or until bottom of cookies are slight brown and cookie holds it's shape. Transfer to a wire rack and let it cool completely. Then dust with powder sugar and fill the centers with one or two jams of your choice. (I have used blueberry and strawberry jams.)

8.
Serve and enjoy! Store in air-tight container and consume within 2-3 days.

Savita's Notes:

I topped the cookies with jelly after baking and cooling a bit. You can also bake cookies with jelly for a slight longer shelf-life. Read description for more details.